The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Kelvin Sampson Discusses AAC Championship Cancellation

Episode Date: March 12, 2020

University of Houston Men's Basketball Coach, Kelvin Sampson , joins Matt to discuss the cancellation of the AAC Championship amid the Corona Virus Pandemic

Rockets basketball. Rockets PA announcer and sports talk show host. One might get the impression Matt Thomas loves to hear Matt Thomas's voice. Go ahead, Matt, talk for us. 1231 on the Matt Thomas show. I was not scheduled to go with the Rockets on this trip to L.A. and Portland. So the family, and this is truth be told, and I just texted. This is to coach Samson a while ago.

My daughter, my middle son, and my wife, we were going to come to Fort Worth because we wanted to. We don't get to be fans very much of sports. And we were very much looking forward to rooting our Cougars on to the conference tournament at the brand new Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. To see our Houston Cougars hopefully win another conference championship, and unfortunately that's not going to happen. Calvin Samson is on the bus right now.

Heading back from Fort Worth. Coach, it's Matt. Thank you for the time. my family is disappointed. I'm sure your Cougar family is stunned and disappointed that you guys are making your way back to Houston right now. Well, there are thousands and thousands of fans, players, families, disappoint all over the country.

I was on the phone early this morning with our conference, and I literally met South Florida and Central Florida. We're on the floor warming up for their, for their new game, and when they were pulled off and sent back to the locker room. And I think the same thing happened in the ACC tournament, the Big East tournament, and a couple other tournaments. So, you know, it's just uncharted border for everybody. There's a lot of people that make a living, you know, off of this time of year, whether it be concessionaires, parking people, ushers, whatever in these, these tournaments.

But, you know, these players, his programs, especially had good years. I was thinking about Dayton and Coach Grant and Obie Poppin. You know, it's a shame that the country would not be able to see him play, and they get rewarded for such a great year. You know, we had a really young team this year.

Found a way to share a conference championship. And I was anxious to see what our team looked like in Fort Worth. We were the teams that, I think, had a chance to win it and maybe improve your seat and go to an NCAA tournament. But, you know, the thing gets in a way called life. You know, it's not something to get mad about or certainly not make fun off. It's just it's life, you know.

When they make these decisions, they're not easy. You know, I can't imagine being on a conference call with commissioners and presidents of these universities this morning having to make this call and then call the AD and coaches and say, we're going to counsel the tournament. That's not easy. But when you step back and look at it from a big picture to that point, you know, you're talking about something that could alter this sport and people's lives forever. So, you know, a lot of people say, well, it's not that bad.

if you're not a doctor, I have no interest in listening to you. That's right. That's right. Yeah, I couldn't have said a better myself. When did you coach start hearing about alterations of the event, not allowing fans in, and then maybe the possibility of cancellation? When did you really start getting involved in the minute-to-minute conversations? Yeah, I was on a call last night about the when they made the call that no fans, and they had actually said, hey, here's a way. we're going to handle tickets.

Each school, I think, was going to get 125 tickets. The only people that were allowed to have in the arena was immediate family, essential game personnel, coaches, players, that's it, no band, no cheerleaders. I'm sure essential personnel met media as well. So it was going to be a bare-bones operation, but they worked. we're going to play the games. And then this morning, and this morning about 8.30, I got the first call about, we were moving down the road to cancel the tournament.

And then they just had to get all, no communication. I think the commissioners from all the conferences were on a conference call and the president's work too. So they made the call, and we literally were two and a half hours, hour and a half away from Fort Worth. And we found the next exit, flipped it around and headed back. When you got on the microphone or maybe walked back where the kids are sitting on the bus,

what was their initial reaction? Well, first of all, I had to wake them up. That's true. I forgot about that. Yeah, I had to wake them up. I think bewilderment, question marks. I'm sure there's a lot of, sometimes you're not quite sure what to ask when you have a question.

You know, and I really didn't have a lot of answers. I tried to answer the best I could. And the answer is that we are not going to play the conference tournament. We're going to go back. We're going to be at a holding pattern. I would think if they're going to cancel the NCAA tournament, we're going to hear pretty soon. If they're going to try to find a way to play it, that means it will be postponed versus cancel, and they're going to have to figure out the logistics of that. So we're just in a holding pattern. I rewarded team, I said, you know, for winning for having this year ranked 22nd Nation and winning this championship, we're going to

the fuckies. What did you get, I have to ask? No, no. I've got a brisket sandwich and a nice bite. Yeah, that's absolutely the right call on that place. Visiting with Kelvin Sampson, head basketball coach at the University of Houston with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Coach, you are incredibly connected through all your years and so many great friends in the industry. Have you been able to text call other coaches maybe that are outside of the region to kind of see what's going on with their programs?

You know, a couple of coaches in the conference this morning. I got a call from John Brannan from Cincinnati. A couple of them texts earlier. I think everybody's just so concerned about their own team. You know, my concern right now is these 12 kids of my staff. I've got to find a way to navigate through this next 24, 48, 72 hours, Matt to let them know. I mean, we're on spring break this week, and today is Thursday. You know, I'm going to keep them on campus for as long as I can.

I know classes have been canceled. So, you know, we're kind of headed into uncharted waters. I don't think anybody has a everybody's plan right now is or should be fluid. I don't think we can put a nail in anything or just play it by ear. You know, since I've been alive, I don't recall anything like this. So I don't know. You know, you got the stock market plummeting. You got NBA players being tested positive for this virus.

You've got travel being shut down. You've got tournaments being canceled. NCAA's got to make a huge decision coming up here. Tennis, professional tennis is canceled. You know, I don't know. The easy answer is we're just going to go hour by hour, half day by half day, day, day by day, and try to make the best decision for the people around us.

Well, clearly, Kelvin, you would like for this to be, postponed and not canceled. Ultimately, we'd like to get these kids an opportunity to play for a national championship. I guess the question would be, if they were to say postponed, in your mind, you know, you can keep your kids pretty close, but there's going to be some other kids that are trying to finish up school, graduations, other things going on. I mean, how long can you quote-unquote postpone an event as magical as this without it really ruining the integrity of kids that are been practicing and playing and trying to fight their way? last thing? Well, I think the thing they're going back up against Matt is the Masters. CBS paid $1 billion plus dollars to televise this event, and they're not going to play it

without CBS televising it, but they're also not going to cancel. They're not going to postpone and move the Masters either. So I don't know what the, I don't know the flexibility they have. You know, I read something this morning where if you quarantine yourself 21 days, I think you'll be okay. But that's true or not. I did read that. So I don't know if we have enough time to make a decision where we can ensure everybody's health. And unless they do that, I think they'll counsel it. Well, I appreciate you jumping on with me on short notice.

Like I said, my daughter is devastated and went to Academy and bought some. some new U of H gear for the weekend's events. But, you know, that all pales in comparison to what's going on with our society, frankly, coach. And we thank you for the time. Safe to come back. You tell her to keep that gear and bring it to the Partita Center next year. Oh, for sure, for sure. Thank you, friend, for the time as always.

Okay, thanks, back. You got it. That's Calvin Sampson, head basketball coach of the University of Houston with us here.